Can community health worker home visiting improve care-seeking and maternal and newborn care practices in fragile states such as Afghanistan? A population-based intervention study

Table 2 Sociodemographic characteristics of the intervention and control districts

Intervention or control area	Intervention	Intervention	Intervention	Intervention	Control	Control	Control	Control
Design
Province	Bamyan	Bamyan	Kandahar	Kandahar	Bamyan	Bamyan	Kandahar	Kandahar
District	Bamyan	Yakawlang	Arghandaab	Dand	Panjab	Waras	Damaan	Speen Boldak
District population data
Total population	55,123	57,559	69,094	83,392	53,501	84,826	15,815	88,622
Women of child-bearing age	11,198	11,870	14,356	15,678	11,456	16,743	3678	18,765
Distance in km from provincial capital	110	130	110	155	140	160	100	120
Health system characteristics
Sub-centres	4	3	4	5	4	5	2	4
Basic health centres	3	3	3	3	3	4	2	3
Comprehensive health centres	3	2	3	4	3	4	2	3
District hospitals	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Mobile health teams	1	2	0	0	2	3	0	1
Demographic characteristics
Conflict risk^a	Low	Medium	High	High	Low	Medium	High	High
Remote^b	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mountainous^c	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Lowest wealth quintile^d	81%	39%	74%	32%	65%	35%	71%	40%

^aConflict affected = use of armed force between warring parties in a conflict dyad, be it state based or non-state, resulting in deaths); 25 deaths or less in the previous 12 months is categorised as low intensity, 25–100 is categorised as moderate intensity and 100+ is categorised as high intensity [20, 21]
^bRemote = District centre more than 2 h away by any form of transport from provincial capital [20, 21]
^cMountainous = more than 1800 km elevation at highest point of district [20, 21, 41]
^dLowest wealth quintile = As per the Afghanistan Living Standards Survey 2015 using Principal Components Analysis [41]

ISSN: 1741-7015